Swindon UFO Research - The UFO Group for Wiltshire and the South West

End of Year Report

The last year will go down in ufology history as the year of the lantern.  Hundreds of sightings were reported across the country and covered in the national press.  We hope this exposure has helped in getting the subject back into the public eye, but we also look to the damage this may have caused.  Some of the stories were sensationalised to the point that the story no longer represented the facts of the case. 

The steady flurries of reports looked to sell copies for the press and were in general not particularly interested in the truth behind the sightings.  As we reach the end of the year we now see 'laser beam' videos.  What Tosh!  These are not laser beams; they are false images, either created by pixel bleed or by post production editing by some hoaxer. 

What does this all mean for SUFOR?  We do comment on public forums and in the press where necessary, but stay away from the politics.  Our aim as always will be to support witnesses and carry out objective investigations.  We are not and never will play political games with other groups; we will not be dragged into infighting.  That would waste energy and right now we need to keep all our energies focused for the next year ahead.  Our responsibility is to direct this current interest as appropriate - away from the more fantastic claims and educate and inform the general public of the real story behind the headlines.  However this does not have to take the form of dull lectures or articles on how serious ufology should be taken - the public doesn't give a flying hoot about that.  Despite what others may believe, we will not get the interest levels by being dull, factual and taking ourselves too seriously.  The key to generating interest lies in making the subject accessible and interesting to others - and that is not by bombarding them by facts and figures.

We never did have a lantern case over Swindon until November, when a small fleet were let loose over the town on Children in Need day.  We had reports of orange lights, military helicopters, UFO's making crop circles, saucers over South Wiltshire, Pink UFO's,  Spanish fleets of UFO's and reports from all over the UK mainly of stars, planets and meteors.  The moon made an appearance too, although we didn't have any that turned out to be the Sun.  The full report will be presented at the group meeting on the 8th of December and published here shortly afterwards.